WE all know, dear children, that nothing is hidden from God. We may sometimes do wrong, and forget that it is so, but all the same it is true that “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:1313Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:13)).
The word conscience means to know together with. You have done something wrong. You know it. And God knows it too.
Now I shall tell you about a little boy’s conscience. His name was Walter, and he lay awake one night for a long, long time after his mother had put him to bed.
Thinking that he would be asleep in a few minutes, she had gone downstairs to see some friends in the parlor.
Poor little Walter! he could not sleep nor even rest. He turned his pillow over and tried to make his bed more comfortable, but the fault was not in the bed, and not in the pillow, but in the child’s own heart.
He had been doing wrong that day; his conscience told him of it; and that was why he could not sleep.
As he lay on his bed he could hear the murmuring of a waterfall and it seemed to speak to him, of his sin. Ah! conscience may well be called a faithful monitor; it would make itself heard by little Walter. The very stars seemed to be looking in at him with sorrow. At last he could bear it no longer; and getting out of bed, he went downstairs and called his mother, who followed him quickly.
“Mother,” he said, “I am very unhappy. I promised you that I would take no more fruit at dinner time; but after you left the room I took a bunch of grapes and three apples, and I hid them in my box in the nursery. I am very sorry, mother, and I want you to forgive me. I could not go to sleep, because I had disobeyed you, and told a lie too.”
His mother did forgive him freely, and was thankful that he had not hidden his sin. But she reminded Walter that he had grieved the Lord, His Saviour and his best Friend, and that her child could not be happy without confessing his sin to Him. So they knelt together acknowledging the transgression, and asking the Lord Jesus to keep him from sinning again.
Then Walter went to sleep; for the Word of God says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)).